Monday, May 30, 2011

I have literally run out of ideas to blog about so I am just going to blog about random things. Today's random post is about our pecan tree in our front yard.

I first "met" this tree in May 2005. It was a tiny little thing. I remember Billy tying it to a stake as it was so weak in the wind. See it in the left of the photo. Maybe about 1.5 feet tall.

The next time I saw this tree was in October 2008 when we moved back here from Australia. It had about doubled it's height in those 3 years that we were gone. Also notice there is now a house in the lot next door.

I know I have more photos of this tree on my old laptop but it is currently out of commission at the moment so here is one from July 2010. You can see it has definitely grown a lot in the past few years.

One of things I love so much about living in this country is the deciduous trees. I love watching the leaves change colours in the fall and then the bare trees asleep in the winter time. Then the anticipation of the new leaves bursting out in Spring. Call me lame, I don't care. I love it!

Here it is during winter 2010:

Here it is just before Spring this year in March.

And here is it sprouting new leaves in April this year:

And finally this one was taken on May 2nd this year. I have one from last year with Billy standing next to it, but of course its on the dead laptop. But you can tell just by the birdfeeder that it has grown a bunch.

So that is our pecan tree. Hopefully one day it will look like this one in the back of Billy's grandparents home:

Friday, May 27, 2011

You know why? Because you can't hide on the Internet. Everything you do on the Internet, your IP address is recorded.

And with special programs, your IP address will show exactly where you are. So if people are harassing you or stalking you online and they THINK they are doing it anonymously, they aren't. You can see exactly where they are on a map.

Isn't that fabulous!

I find it rather strange that people who are happy that I am out of their lives feel the need to keep coming to my blog to spy on me. What is it that is so fascinating about me that you can't stay away? You obviously don't like me, going by your actions but you still come here to my blog.

I have moved on. You really should too. Find something good about your own life and stop focussing so much on mine.

You might notice I skip some of the days. They are things like: Song you hear on the radio (I don't listen to the radio) and the last 2 were almost identical to previous days. So I am going to skip them.

So here are songs I would have had at our wedding if we had a traditional one.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

After we had dinner and Billy left for work this afternoon/evening I went out the back to feed the dogs and there were a bunch of hummingbirds zooming around the feeders. I realised they were empty so I filled them all up and decided I would get the camera and try to get some photos.

I got these out the back. There always seems to be one that chases others away from the feeders. This guy was sitting down on the fence next to the deck.

You can tell he is a male because of his red throat, the females don't have that.

The dogs started messing around so I decided to go and sit out on the lawn out front near the bird feeder and nectar feeder to see if I could get some photos out there.

This guy was guarding the feeder out here. It seems to be the males chasing away the females. How mean!

No birds came to the feeder near me, but a few were on the other one. Hopefully if I sit out there a few times they might get used to me. The hummingbirds didn't seem to mind at all.

Cassie followed me outside and plopped herself under the Crape Myrtle tree. She didn't stay out for long though. Once I noticed this, I took her inside.

Such a naughty kitty!

Then I saw a Mockingbird fly into the Crape Myrtle and climb into the middle of it so I was curious. And look what I found:

A nest!!! No wonder Cassie likes this tree!

Here is the builder:

It was great just sitting out there and watching all the birds and bugs. I am going to do it again tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wow this was a hard one. So I decided I would choose an album that I loved every song that was on it. And hands down it had to be the "Stand By Me" Soundtrack. The Dirty Dancing soundtrack came in a close second but I adore the movie "Stand By Me" so this won.

If you have never seen this movie, please do. It is wonderful. It is based on a novella by Stephen King, my favourite author.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I am not usually a fan of frozen meals eg: Lean Cuisine's, Smart One's etc, however these are an exception. Cause they aren't really a meal per say. They come in about 4 flavours I think, but the Thai is my favourite.

I usually have them with a big bowl of salad for lunch and for 5 Points plus for 3 of them, they are a great treat! I even turned Billy onto them. His favourite are these ones:

I like these too, but the Thai ones have crunchy water chestnuts and curry in them which is really hard to beat.

You can microwave them or bake them in the oven. I really prefer to take the extra time and cook them in the oven to get them nice and crispy.

A pack of 6 is usually around $3.50 but we normally can get them on sale for around $2-2.50 and we stock up!

I was pleasantly surprised to have a loss this week. I had the "womans" thing this week plus my eating was not great. I didn't go over my points at all, staying within my weeklies, BUT my choices were not great. We went to Trader Joe's on a Sunday and they were out of a lot of things and because of Billy's schedule we couldn't go again so I didn't have all the fresh fruit and vegetables on hand like I normally do so I ate a lot of carbs and not so healthy foods. But I still lost AND

I now am officially out of the Obese BMI range! WOOHOOO! I am so thrilled by that you have no idea!

My next goal is to lose 30lbs, which I would like to reach by July 4th. That gives me 6 weeks to lose 3.4lb which is really generous. But I like to have realistic goals.

I am also seriously considering training for a 5k but I have to consult a doctor first about my back.

I hope everyone else is having a great week and for my friends who are also on a weighloss journey, I hope you get good numbers this week too!

Monday, May 23, 2011

I had been eyeing these the past few times we had been at Trader Joe's and finally I decided to give them a try. I asked one of the staff there if they were really spicy and they said they weren't so I grabbed them. I am a wuss when it comes to spicy foods.

So I fried it in my 2 teaspoons of oil (WW requirement).

Then I made a simple guacamole with just some avocado, lemon juice and minced garlic.

Then put it all together on a toasted wheat pita with some sliced up cucumber and some pickles on the side.

It was DELICIOUS! I wish I had have had some tomato to put on it though! That would have been perfect!

I also recently had one of the burger patties with some roasted vegetables and it was really good just on it's own.

So these will be a definite regular purchase! And they are only 3 Points Plus! Bargain!

Last week when we did our regular shop at Trader Joe's we decided we wanted to start trying something new from there each week. So this time we decided to try their Mandarin Orange Chicken.

The display says that it's one of their biggest sellers.

The week before they were running a competition over the loud speaker and were giving out hints of a product and whoever guessed the product and took it up to the Customer Service counter got to spin the wheel to win a prize. Well I won! And I spun the wheel and won this:

So I decided to make it with the Orange Chicken. I also steamed some broccoli to have with them. Here is my plate:

It was DELICIOUS! The Orange Chicken was sooooo good! It was crispy and the Mandarin Orange sauce was sweet and tangy and just perfect. The Rice pilaf wasn't bad. Nothing spectacular but it was a nice side dish and the orange sauce soaked into it which made it even better.

The Orange Chicken was only 5 points a serve which was really good in my opinion. The Rice Pilaf was 6 points a serve and in all honesty, I would have been happy with just some plain brown rice. But you have to try these things once. Plus it was free!

Billy & Ashley really liked the Orange Chicken too so it will be a regular meal in this house for sure.

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Hi there!! Thanks for stopping by! I'm Nikki, An Aussie girl now living in Central North Carolina in the USA. This blog is all about life here, weightloss, family, photography and bits of everything else. Enjoy!